Week Two in Ecuador

Well it´s been a great week! Actually, it didn´t start off well, truth be told. Like another of my classmates, I had the first week blues: I was not happy in Quito, I was frustrated at not being able to understand or speak, and it was just a rough couple of days (Sunday into Monday). But thankfully I´m not the type of person to stay that way, and I did get out and about, and class and my field trip really helped to push the rest of the way. Since then, it´s been great!

So what have I been up to exactly?

Monday´s class trip was to the botanic gardens with one of the professors. It´s not huge, but it is pretty lovely. There are sections for the cloud forest, for the páramo grasslands, etc. They have two orchid houses, since Ecuador is home to more than 4,000 orchid species. One is temperate, the other more humid. Then there´s a very humid house for the carnivorous plants. Our guide was great, and spoke nearly perfectly for me. I think he also really enjoyed speaking with someone who knew something about plants and was really interested in what he had to say!


Top, a chinese lamp flower. This is in the cloud forest section. Bottom, one of the amazing prehistoric ferns.



Top, a ballerina orchid. Bottom, one of many slipper orchids. Oh they were so lovely!



This is one of the pitcher plants, the largest one that they have at the garden, but larger do exist. These plants use perfumes to attract bugs, then close their lids and dissolve the bugs slowly with a powerful acid. Cool, huh?


My trip Tuesday was to the city center to the Wax Museum, which tells the story of Ecuador´s struggle for independence. It was really pretty well done, and I certainly learned a lot. And, I finally got to see the city center, as it wasn´t completely blockaded! Now, that doesn´t mean that there still weren´t troops everywhere. In fact, our little tour group was my professor and myself with two military men. That was odd - two military men in the museum, in their fatigues, with their guns, having a tour with us. But they were very interested and asked all kinds of questions. However, it was pouring and storming, so I didn´t get any photos of the center, and none were allowed in the musueum.

Wednesday´s trip was with my regular professor off to Guápulo, a suburb-ish area of the city. It´s very pretty and rather interesting, and it poured again. Since we were walking in the rain, I didn´t take photos again. But we did get a great tour of this lovely little church, and before we left, I did grab a photo of it in the drizzle.



Thursday´s trip was in the evening, and several of my classmates joined in - it was a night tour to the Panecillo and La Ronda. And it was beautiful! I know my camera doesn´t perform well in the dark, so I didn´t even drag it along. I´ll get an image or two from one of my classmates. But here´s a shot of the Panecillo - although in the rain - from earlier in the week.



This spot overlooks the city and it´s just a gorgeous view. La Ronda is a street in the center that has been redeveloped into a tourist zone and is full of restaurants and shops. We went to one for traditional drinks - canelazos - and snacks - bocadillos. I´ll get some images from my classmates too, since you have to see the empanadas de viento to believe them - huge!! And very tasty too, I must say. On the tour we had several folks with very little Spanish, so to save my professor, I did their translation, and that was fun. And on the trip I met the other student who is also traveling to the rainforest with me tomorrow. She´s from Finland, is also married and travling solo, and we got on so well that I am just super excited for this trip next week -- it´s going to be a blast!

This last photo is of the COICA offices, where my friends in Quito work, and where I´m doing some pro-bono work with translation/editing. I´ll probably be there afternoons my last week here. Sadly, they have two workshops going on next week, in community, and yesterday is when I actually got asked about going, which is too late. So when I come back......



And last night was great fun! My school has a party for the 4th birthday of the foundation - congratulations Yanapuma! After, Juan Carlos and I went downtown to a migration thing, and it turned out to be a concert with, I believe, the National Orchestra of Andean Instruments. Just in one of the plazas. It was a little party, and everyone just danced for an hour. Then we grabbed dinner and walked around. Today we´re off to take the Teleférico up Guagua Pichincha, which is one of the active volcanoes here in Quito. Not sure yet of the rest of the plan, and then I leave in the morning for the rainforest. The lodge has a computer, so I´ll plan to do a post from there, but here´s the gist:

Leave tomorrow and take the bus to Tena. Stay in Tena overnight.
Very early Monday morning take the bus to Los Ríos. Then take a canoe to the lodge.
Arrive at Yachana Lodge late morning, which is run by the Foundation and has been called an ´award-winning ecotourism lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon.´ Class Monday afternoon.
Tuesday - Thursday I have class half-day, then activities. These could include cooking classes, bird-watching hikes, rafting, other hikes, community visits, etc.
Friday morning class. After lunch, canoe to Los Ríos and bus to Tena. Probably will stay in Tena overnight.
Saturday morning, bus back to Quito for early afternoon arrival.

So I need to do a bit of packing, and I really do mean a bit -- I won´t be taking more than my backpack for the week. Next weekend, both the Juan Carloses will be away on their community trip, so I´ll use the time to finish my holiday shopping and probably visit the center, since I haven´t been able to do it yet during a time when I could actually visit the buildings.

And here´s the best part: I hadn´t seen Juan Carlos in nearly a week and he seemed really impressed with the difference. More, yesterday I really felt like things were starting to click. Oh, right, that phrase takes the subjunctive. Yes, I can conjugate this verb in my head in less than a minute. So much more positive.

So, off for another great day!